(Modest Thoughts with Ayuba Yilgak'ha, December 6, 2022; 08116181263; loisayuba420@gmailicom)
THE PARADOX OF CELEBRATED UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA
It is high time Nigeria draw a
lesson from Navajo Proverb which says: "You can't wake a person who is
pretending to be asleep." Taking sleep as a metaphor for ignorance, it can
be said that this proverb succinctly captures the core of Nigeria's greatest
problem. I have the conviction that in most cases, Nigerians, especially, our
leaders claim ignorance as a strategy. They know what our most pressing needs
are but acting promptly is always a problem itself. Our leaders prefer the
country to last in its current contradictions because they are profiting from
it. Even the masses that are worst hit are getting acclimatized and okay with
the sorry state of our nation.
Some years past, I read a book
that talked about the "fear of freedom". To fear freedom is to be
dead-minded and comfortable in a state of serfdom. A dog that has become used
to the chain is likely to surrender to fate and refused to go even if
unchained. An anonymous writer wrote that "You can't liberate a slave who
has found comfort in captivity." He further noted, "That is the state
many Nigerians have found themselves today. And it is very sad."
Under what conditions could a man
or a people become underdeveloped or permanent savages? There are many causes
but the main ones include but are not limited to fear of freedom, intellectual
ignorance, political illiteracy, the papacy, hypnosis, religious indoctrination
and brainwashing, tribal or religious bigotry, etc.
Fear of freedom is a motivation
for tyranny. Tyranny has no future but the allowance or breathing space
oppressed cowards sheepishly grant tyrants. In other words, tyranny is a
grant-aided political enterprise of rogue elites whose trade in stock is to cash
in on the collective ignorance of docile people. No wonder, Fredrick Douglass
said, "The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom
they oppose" or oppressed. This means that when the oppressed gets fade up
and sustainably react in unison against their oppressors, they helplessly quit
and sooner than expected too!
Intellectual ignorance is another
window for underdevelopment. Being dormant and lacking in critical thinking
skills which is the product of education is a huge setback in personal
liberation. Educated people serve and cannot swallow things undigested.
Educated and critical-minded people will always ask questions like what, why,
how, etc. The idea is to gain enough information to help them make informed
decisions. Educated citizens cannot be toyed with or served carelessly but are
respected and, in most cases, consulted before decisions that affect them are
taken at any given time.
Political illiteracy is a subset
but the worst form of illiteracy. A political illiterate does not understand
how political systems work and so knows not when a system becomes faulty and he
or she is short-changed by the system. He might be knowledgeable enough to read
and write books but stay aloof to politics and or do not decipher that his lack
of participation has implications for the overall working of the system. He
does know that everything starts and ends with politics as far as resource
allocation is concerned. A political illiterate does not mind selling his civil
and fundamental human rights for the price of a cigarette, data, or plate of
porridge and will do so with pride and glaring arrogance.
Paupacy is the status of being
poor. It is another sign and propeller of underdevelopment. Living in abject
poverty as the case is, in developing countries like Nigeria is capable of
leading the citizenry into savage/serfdom conditions, that is, the status of
being slaves. In the November 2022 Report released by the National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), it was revealed that 133 million Nigerians are living in
abject poverty. This further established the report by Poverty Clock in 2019
which chronicled Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world and has remained
so up-to-date. While countries like India, China, Indonesia, etc. are lifting
their citizens, in millions, out of Poverty, Nigerians are speedily railroading
into it in unusual and unacceptable. A country whose dynasty of poverty is
expanding is certainly on the road to serfdom.
Hypnosis is a diabolic and
manipulative means of mentally chaining someone to think upside down and to do
things that he would have done otherwise if left alone. People who are
operating under a spell, that is, being taken captive by diabolic manipulation,
religious brainwashing and indoctrination are at risk of facing complex
developmental contradictions. In this regard, it can be argued that the
obsession of most Nigerians with poor religious orientation has become the
greatest undoing of the country since the people cannot help themselves but
resort to continuous prayers without working the prayers. I have always argued
that hard work is the continuation of prayers and so people who cannot exercise
their franchise and faculties to create value but stay in prayer houses 24/7
are cultivating nothing but abject poverty.
Religion has its role but cannot
fix problems arising from other systems whose modus operandi is not religion
friendly. For instance, creating value or putting food on one's table which is
a matter of skilled labor in economics, has nothing to do with prayers. A man
who is actively praying and lazily sleeping will eventually die in poverty and
hunger. No religion can prevent this. Religion cannot save an over speeding
driver who ignores traffic regulations under the guise that he has prayed
before taking off. Only total concentration and driving according to the rules
of manufacturers who might even be atheists and traffic regulations will help!
A profane member of my faith or
yours cannot spare your goats or public treasury just because you voted based
on religious inclination. When the demons in him start, you might even be his
first victim. A criminal does not have a tribe or religion but one target: His
victim. The interest is to have someone to short-change as a means of earning a
living. Political criminals who found their way into public offices feast on
the gullibility and ignorance of the toiling masses.
Tribal or religious bigotry is
another issue. The story of the axe and the forest provide a classical
explanation: "The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the
axe, for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was
made of wood, he was one of them" (Turkish Proverb). A sizeable number of
Nigerians have no problem with bad leadership provided it is from their tribe
or religion.
In 2014, the then APC
Presidential candidate and now two terms President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari while discussing the ASUU strike, tutored Nigerians
on a sense of what can be indexed as a misplaced and irresponsible government
when he appeared on a Chanel's Television (TV) Program, "Hard Copy"
anchored by a veteran journalist, Makwe. His words are cited unedited in the
next paragraph
"Teachers of the tertiary
institutions and polytechnics were on strike. These strikes were, at least, for
a whole academic year. I think a serious government if they have N7bilion to
throw about, will go and negotiate with ASUU and then the teacher's
organization or teachers' unions of the tertiary institutions from polytechnics
downward, so that our children should remain in school, even complement
equipment (you know) and other social facilities (you know) for educational
institutions. I was so personally against that because the National Assembly is
there. I believe the executive ought to have sent a memoir to the National
Assembly if they want constitutional amendment in line with the 1999
constitution as amended. Why go and take 7 billion that you could not afford
when our children are on the street? I think this government has the capacity
for wrong priorities." This was a hard knock on the then-PDP
administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan which was eventually voted
out and the accuser took over.
Interestingly today, history is
repeating itself as Nigerian universities went on protracted strike for 8
uninterrupted months with no solution in sight under Buhari's regime. How can
one explain a situation where these universities and other related tertiary
institutions are closed down for this long but some youth and parents who are
direct or indirect affected by this ugly development still chant APC, the
ruling party that is superintending over this mess? During the Ekiti
governorship poll, ASUU was on strike for four consecutive (4) months but the
President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) who is the
leader of all students in the country 'was happy that he delivered his polling
unit to the winner', APC government. What a paradox!
How can one also explain a
situation where a nation and its citizens are living in perpetual fear of the
unknown, there is a clear and present danger: People are being maimed, killed,
and destroyed with impunity through the activities of insurgents, terrorists,
kidnappers, bandits, etc., yet, even direct victims still praise and support
the government that has utterly failed in halting these killer threats? There
can be some good candidates in the APC but the candidates should be sober and
not brag about the performance of the incumbent as though all is well. The
party has not failed flat but certainly has not taken Nigerians to the land of
Eldorado: Not fulfilled its bogus promises!
How can a people support a system
that impoverishes them in such a manner in this country? Nigeria has become the
poverty capital of the world with the north which dominated the governance
structure of the country for decades, being the worst hit for it. However, the
mass majority of impoverished people of this region are still the ones
celebrating our indigenous slave masters. Listen to the poetic lyrics of some
northern artists/poets and you will be surprised how poor northerners are,
ironically, praising the unjustifiably rich amongst them!
How can a country be moving in a
reversed gear and the citizens be delusional hoping to attain sustainable
development? The author is not known who remarked that Nigeria is the only
developing country where poverty is increasing. Yet, the citizens of this
country are reputed the happiest people on earth based on World Happiness Index
(WHI). This is an unassuming and surprising puzzle of a nation. Given the
current hardship in Nigeria, it is rather mysterious that the country's people
are the happiest on the face of the earth. The possible explanation for this
21st Century's irony could either be that the citizens are substantiating
Marx's thesis that 'religion is the opium of people or that the frustrated
people are smiling at the storms of their lives in such a fashion that is
common with mentally retarded folks. One index of mental retardation is for a man
to be exceedingly comfortable and happy in an abnormal situation!
For a country like Nigeria to be
liberated from the clutches of bad leaders, sound wisdom must be applied. One
way of doing this is for the citizens to harken to the simple but profound
voice of Arthur Ashe which commands as follows: "Start where you are, Use
what you have, Do what you can." Nigeria is a free democratic state and so
the greatest weapon for liberation in this system is the ballot box. What the
citizen can do in the next general elections is to exercise their franchise in
stepping out to vote for credible leaders at all levels; not the highest
bidders. Nigeria can only get it right when citizens resist hedonistic
temptations and massively vote for credibility. The opportunity and possibility
for a functional system are lost when citizens vote for money and not their
convictions.
Another profound and distilled
wisdom can be deduced from the postulation of Marcus Aurelius who stated that
"when a bunch of known corrupt people unite against one man and spare no
effort to ridicule him, blackmail him and attempt to assassinate his character,
blindly follow that one man." This is because the corrupt have no virtue
to offer but to destroy those that can. It is, however, important to note that
choosing a virtuoso man over corrupt elements is a revolutionary act that must
be asserted with tack and unwavering courage. This is the implied sense
conveyed in George Orwell's submission that "in a time of deceit telling
the truth is a revolutionary act."
It is paradox that a people could
celebrate being savaged. Nations that expelled or minimized savage living in
history all started by being increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo and
rose to the occasion by collectively saying enough is enough. They risk their
lives resisting tyranny, the custodians of serfdom, and sometimes recording not
only success but casualties. America did. South Africa did. Ghana did. Even the
heroes of our struggling democracy in Nigeria did and we can do it too through
the power of the ballot box. The ballot revolution is loading
again in Nigeria!
